Book Beat Beats The Odds For Independent Bookstores, Turns 30

August 19th, 2012, 2:36 PM

Opened in August 1982, in recent years Book Beat has persisted through a particularly challenging era for brick-and-mortar booksellers. (The profile picture on its Facebook page features a sign that reads: "Amazon Free Zone.")

The store's broad and eclectic selection of literary, art and children's titles is highlighted by a reading series that has brought hundreds of authors from around the nation to interact with local readers first-hand.

This year, the Book Beat won the Pannell Prize at the major national exposition for booksellers. The prize recognizes the store as one of the best in the nation "at inspiring kids' interest in reading, as well as creatively bringing books and young people together."

Carey Loren was only 28 when he opened the Book Beat. A working artist who is developing a project that is coming to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit this fall, he continues to be in the center of the reading life of the region.